1. Meeting with Member State experts on Life Cycle Assessment of fuel in relation to Article 7a of proposal COM 2007(18)
17 July 2007
European Commission

2. Purpose of the meeting
Disseminate information on application of life cycle approach to fuel.
Create awareness of the state of the art with life cycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from fuel.
Create awareness of state of the art of greenhouse gas reporting tools for fuels.
Discuss practical issues with experts.

3. What is Life Cycle Assessment
The assessment of the environmental impact of a given product or service throughout its lifespan.
The goal is to compare the environmental performance of products and services, to be able to choose the least burdensome one.
It requires the assessment of raw material production, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal including all intervening transportation steps.
(source Wikipedia)

4. LCA example for jeans cotton cultivation and harvesting Transport
(impacts: water quality, waste, pollutant emissions, GHG emissions)
Transport
(impacts: pollutant emissions, GHG emissions)
denim production
jeans manufacture
Distribution

5. GHG reduction mechanism - rationale
Transport fuel contribution by reducing GHG intensity
Ensure changes in fuels (e.g. tar sands, coal to liquid etc.) don’t lead to increases in GHG intensity
Sectoral approach – not subject to international competition, encourage innovation.
Maximum flexibility

6. Article 7a
Requires reporting of lifecycle GHG emissions from fuel supplied from 2009
Mandatory obligation on supplier to reduce emissions from 2011.
Methodology to be developed through Committee
Reduction obligation proposed:
Starts at 1% per year in 2011
Obligation increases each year by 1%
In 2020 life cycle GHG from fuel would be 90% that in 2010.

7. FQD proposed Article 7a
Proposes a life cycle assessment approach to fuel
However, only addresses Greenhouse Gas emissions

8. Scope
Extraction / cultivation
Transport
Processing
Fuel composition
Distribution

9. Reporting Monitoring and reporting
Obligation is on ‘suppliers’ (MS) level
Single, simple methodology defined at EU level
Reporting emissions already an obligation for refineries under EU ETS
Possible default values where appropriate (suppliers could provide actual data if preferred)
From 1/1/2009
Verification obligation on MS

10. “State of the art”
Well-to wheel study carried out by JRC-EUCAR-CONCAWE
DE/NL/UK preparing tools to report on lifecycle GHG balance for biofuels.
CA working on development of Low Carbon Fuel Standard

11. Some important issues in relation to life cycle assessment of fuel GHG
Where are the boundaries of the system?
Reference situation
How is land-use change dealt with?
How are emissions due to co-products treated?
Time periods for greenhouse gasses.
Availability of information
Dealing with uncertainty
Trade-off between complexity and accuracy

12. Thank you for your attention